Do you remember nylon stockings and garter belts?
Women of a certain age do, especially us baby boomers. I thought they went out 40 years ago, but the bidding on a box of nylons at a recent auction changed my mind.
Six boxes of stockings – including a pair of bright pink ones – all neatly folded under tissue paper were sold in an auction of vintage clothes. The lot went for $12.50, and was purchased by a male bidder. Most of the bidders that day were women, with only a sprinkling of men.
Curious, I Googled “nylon stockings” and found several websites that sell them. Who would’ve thought! The websites make them seem so sexy, with the stockings pulled tightly on women’s legs and held in place with garter belts. I don’t know about you, but that’s not the way I remember them. I found the garter belts uncomfortable (but I was a teenager at the time and far from sexy).
At another auction, I came across several little matchbooks with graphics of stockings on the cover. When I looked inside, I found what looked like a combination of matches and a sewing kit. They were hosiery mending kits, which contained matchsticks with glue heads, threads and instructions for repairing a run in stockings.
On the inside of two of them were directions: “Tear off Run-Arrestor Wand like any match book stick. Moisten with tongue and touch both ends of stocking run. Mend before washing.” The kits were produced by the Real Silk Hosiery Mills in Indianapolis, Ind. The other matchbook had the Esso (oil company) logo.
These apparently were given out free to women as an advertising promotion. On the back of the Real Silk books was a space for the company’s rep to write her name because the kit was only “Obtainable from a Real Silk Representative.” One book has a name in pencil and the other has a phone number. According to my research, Real Silk was founded in 1922 and made hosiery, lingerie and underwear. At its peak, it produced more than one million dozen pairs of hosiery a year.
The matchbooks are still in good condition, with some minor wear on one. Most of the sticks are intact and the graphics look great. I’m not sure how old they are but they are vintage.
By the time I started wearing stockings, we stopped runs with fingernail polish. Remember?
Anyway, the auction also featured vintage underwear, from slips to bras and girdles, and vintage furs, dresses, blouses and shoes. Here’s some of what was offered and what they sold for:
Four 1940s short-sleeve silk blouses. $15. From where I stood they looked stained from storage, but maybe they clean up well.
Three 1940s slips and night gown. $25. Good condition and clean.
An ivory wedding gown with train. $25. Good condition, great price.
A 1920s cream-colored Spanish shawl with floral embroidery and fringe (with two small holes near one corner). $57.50
Two nice simple cotton night gowns. $37.50. These looked to be in very good condition. Even I took a second look.
An autumn haze mink stroller, 36″ long. $80. The auctioneer said it had been appraised at $7,500, according to a document in the coat’s pocket. I Googled and found several on the web selling for more than $200. At $80, a fantastic buy – if you’re into fur.
(Speaking of fur: Every time I come across a fur coat, I remember a story that Lena Horne told during a performance I attended of her one-woman show ”Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music” in the early 1980s. At one point in the performance, she dropped her long white mink coat to the floor and walks away. When she dropped the coat at one performance, she said, a woman in the audience kept trying to get her attention. Finally, she listened to the woman: “Your fuh on the floor,” the woman told her. Lena Horne cracked up in the telling of it, and we laughed along with her. She was so funny and so infectious. Since then, I can’t see a fur without thinking of this story and pronouncing it “fuh.”)
A short fox fur jacket. $225. To have a little fun, the wife of the auction house’s owner – or maybe she’s his partner – modeled it for us.
10 pieces of underwear, including bras, panties and girdles. From where I was sitting, they looked worn (maybe not from having been on a woman’s body but from having been stored for years). $1
A pair of ladies shoes from the 1940s, size 7A. $7. These were really cute, in an old-fashioned kind of way. But who wears a 7A?
If you’re into vintage clothing, auctions are definitely the place to go.
